Hyderabad: Civic body plays media trick

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is the third cleanest city in the country. At least that is what the Centre believes. The ranking was based on newspaper reports and TV clips on the Swachh Hyderabad initiative of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, that were provided by the corporation itself. Media reports that highlighted the dirt and grime in the city were obviously not forwarded to the ministry.

The Centre did not conduct any on-ground study of its own, but accumulated all the media reports sent by corporations on the most number of cleanliness awareness programmes and arrived at the rankings. The Union ministry had launched the Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2, 2014. In the first survey, Hyderabad was ranked 275. Later, the GoI-appointed Quality Council of India that has a detailed method to evaluate Swachh parameters for cities, ranked Hyderabad at 19 of the 73 cities ranked. In 2016, another survey, the Swachh Bharat awareness campaign in urban areas, was announced. Based on photographs and clippings of 33 programmes held by GHMC, Hyderabad was placed at the lofty third position.

2/3rd city has few toilets:

Hyderabad continues to struggle to curb open defecation. Only 45 of the 150 wards in the city have adequate number of toilets and awareness about the need for toilets. In the remaining wards, open defecation is a serious problem. The GHMC has 50 bio-urinals, 57 public toilets, 46 toilets maintained by Sulabh International,135 build-own-transfer toilets, and 107 pre-fabricated public toilets. The Swachh city plan requires that 200 public toilets need to be constructed.

According to the 2011 census data, 34,178 households in the city do not have toilets. Most of the open defecation happens in suburban areas. About one-third of the residents who defecate in the open reside in the core area of the city. Defecating along tracks and on river/nala beds and other open spaces is still going on. A survey by the Union ministry of urban development lists some of the reasons for open defecation as follows: No toilet available; toilet is available but is of low quality; the toilet building is put to other uses; no toilet available at the work place and; reluctance of the locals to change their behavioural patterns regarding toilet use.